Cops planted drugs, alleges Kolhapur club

Even as a group of police officers in Mumbai continues to be watched for allegedly planting cocaine in Provogue owner Salil Chaturvedi’s house, another group in Kolhapur is now under fire for allegedly having planted narcotics in a social club before they ‘raided’ it, reports Urvi Mahajani.

Even as a group of police officers in Mumbai continues to be watched for allegedly planting cocaine in Provogue owner Salil Chaturvedi’s house, another group in Kolhapur is now under fire for allegedly having planted narcotics in a social club before they ‘raided’ it.

The Kolhapur club, Kanakratna Krida and Sanskrutik Mandal (KKSM), claims to have closed-circuit footage of drugs being planted in their kitchen minutes before the ‘raid’. The footage also shows the raid team’s plainclothes policemen go straight to the location where the narcotics were planted.

The club has approached the Bombay High Court alleging that on November 28, 2009, police first got drugs planted in their kitchen , then ‘raided’ the place. A division bench of Justice D.B. Bhosale and Justice A.R. Joshi has asked the superintendent of police of the Crime Investigation Department, Kolhapur division, to see the CCTV footage and submit a report in three weeks.

KKSM’s counsel Ashok Mundargi argued that on November 28, 2009, one Jamal Mulla entered their club, went to the kitchen and hid a packet containing narcotic substances in a cupboard behind the mixer. The CCTV captured this. Mulla then left the club. Immediately after, four plainclothes policemen entered and went straight to the kitchen, said Mundargi.

They asked the kitchen staff to remove articles from the cupboard that held the packet. “The policemen specifically asked the employees to search behind the mixer,” he said, adding that this conversation is also recorded.

The packet was ‘discovered’ and seven uniformed policemen entered. An FIR was lodged under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 50 members were arrested and released on bail. KKSM’s advocate Ganesh Gole said that in October 2008, a civil court had restrained police from interfering with the club’s daily running — which is why they have a grudge against the club.

Kolhapur SP Yashasvi Yadav said members of the club have around eight criminal cases pending against them, including a murder case.